Yo La Tengo (from left): Georgia Hubley, James McNew and Ira Kaplan. (Image credit: Godlis)
Yo La Tengo unleashed a handful of new songs today. The four tunes—"You Are Here,” “Shades of Blue,” “She May, She Might” and “Out of the Pool”—are from their upcoming album, There’s a Riot Going On, which'll be released March 16 via Matador Records.
We can already tell it'll be a warm, ambitious disc, a striking self-produced creation from one of rock's most celebrated and adventurous bands.
It also sounds like a big-time guitar record, and a lot of that six-string mayhem is courtesy of drummer/vocalist Georgia Hubley and—of course—guitarist/vocalist Ira Kaplan. Bassist James McNew rounds out the band, as he has since 1992.
In fact, There’s a Riot Going On represents McNew’s first-ever YLT production credit; there was no tracking or demoing—rather many years worth of experimenting, tinkering with and mashing up bits and pieces of rejected film scores and discarded songs and melodies YLT have been sitting on for years.
If the album's title sounds familiar, it was—as every little schoolboy knows—the name of a classic 1971 record by Sly and the Family Stone. It refers to all the horrible stuff going on in the world these days; it's basically Yo La Tengo’s quiet form of resistance.
Following their sold-out eight-night run of Hanukkah shows in New York City in December, Yo La Tengo will kick off a world tour March 28 in Minneapolis, hitting Midwest, East Coast and West Coast markets. The full list of tour dates can be found below.
Be sure to check out the four songs, which have been charmingly sprinkled throughout this story. If you really want to freak yourself out, check out the YouTube player below; it features all four songs—at the same time.
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
